Improvement in folding chairs



P TENT QFFICE.

JOSEPH H. TRAVIS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPRQVEMENT IN FOLDING CHAIRS.

is... I

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. I 81,225, dated August 15, 1876; application filed I r November 27, 1875. i f

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH H. TRAVlS, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Folding Chairs, of which the following is a specification This improvement in folding chairs consists, in substance, of the combination, with a leg stand adapted to fold and unfold, of a seatcarrying frame, which is separate and distinct from the leg-stand, and is adapted of itself to fold and unfold, and is applied to, and arranged upon, the leg-stand, so as to fold and unfold in unison therewith, and, when both are unfolded or opened, be, as a whole, to all intents and purposes, an ordinary chair or stool seat.

In the accompanying plate of drawings, Figure 1 is a crossvertical section of an opened folding chair constructed according to this invention. Fig. 2 is a similar section with the chair folded; Fig. 3, a plan view of Fig. 1; Fig. 4, a horizontal section in line as m, Fig. 1;

.Fig. 5, a part cross vertical section, to show the chair with an arm-rest. Fig. 6 represents a modification of my improvement.

In the drawings, A A represent two legframes. These two leg-frames A are connect ed together at their upper ends by a hinge, a, and they are joined and braced bycrossrounds 1), making of them a common leg-stand or support, B, composed, in substance, of the two leg-frames A, hinged together, as described, to be opened as in Figs. 1 and 3, and closed as in Fig. 2 5 C, the seat-carryingframe. This seat-carrying frame 0 is composed of two frames, D D, and each frame is constructed of side uprights, joined and braced by cross rounds d, and both frames are connected at one end, the lower, when placed in position between the leg-stand B, by a hinge or hinges, d", and at their other and upper end by a flexible seat, E, as illustrated in the drawings. Each frame D of seat-carrying frame 0, between its two ends is pivoted, as atf, to the inside of the frames A of leg-stand B, and the several pivotsf of the frames D are all in the same horizontal plane, and at the same distance from the hinged ends of the frames D. The chair-seat E limits the extent to which the chair can be opened.

The seat-carrying frame 0, in being opened and closed, swings upon its hinges d as a center, and through its pivoted connections f it carries with it the leg-stand B, and thus.

opens and closes its frames A, which swing on their hinged connection at a as a center, and in this combined opening and closing movement the several frames acted upon also swing one upon another at the pivoted connections f f as centers; and thus they adjust themselves one to another and without strain as the chair is opened and closed.

F, a back to the chair herein described. This back is an upward extension of the rear frame of seat-carrying frame 0. A rigid seat may be substituted for the flexible seat herein referred to; but when such substitution is made, in order that the chair may be folded and unfolded, the seat must be arranged in any of the well-known modes, to be adapted to the two positions (folded and unfolded) of the other parts of the chair.

A rigid seat, to operate in conjunction with the folding and unfolding movements of the other parts of the chair, may be arranged in the well-known way shown in Fig. 6, and, in this Fig. 6, G is the rigid seat. This seat is hung at its rear edge h to swing on its carrying-frame from a vertical to a horizontal position in opening the chair, and vice versa in closing the chair, and in both of said movements the elongated loops l, which make its connection at its front edge with the seatcarrying frame 0, secure its automatic operation with the rest of the chair.

This arrangement of a rigid. seat to move with the chair as the chair is folded and un folded, as before stated, is well known, and it is only given as an illustration how a rigid seat can be used in the present improved folding chair, and not with any intention either of claiming it as a part of the present improvements or of limiting the present invention in any way in regard thereto.

Fig. 6 shows the ordinary and well-known cross-leg support for chairs, in combination with a seat-carrying frame, 0, and such a crossleg support can be used in licuvof the leg-support- B, herein described; but a legsupport constructed as described is preferable.

In Fig. 5, H is an arm-rest, fixed to the upper end of one of theframes A, and lying over the upper end of the other frame A, which make up the leg-stand B.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a folding chair, the combination of a folding seat -supporting frame, composed of two sections hinged together below the point of support, and a folding leg-frame, the seatframe being pivoted to, and supported by, the

leg-frame, substantially as described.

2. In a folding chair, the combination of the leg-frame B, composed of strips of timber pivoted midway between their ends, and connected by suitable rounds with the seat-supporting frame 0, constructed of the timbers D, hinged at their lower ends, and provided at their upper ends with a flexible or adjustable seat, substantially as described.

J. H. TRAVIS.

Witnesses:

EDWI W. BROWN, GEO. H. EARL. 

